Tuesday, 6 September 2016

Overview

Sometimes in our project, we have requirement to filter lookup based on some conditions and it can be achieved using addCustomView or addCustomFilter function.

And sometimes it is just not too easy to do it in Javascript or the complex fetch xml, so in my blog I just want to share another method to get the filtered result same as you wanted, that is using Javascript + Custom Action!

4. Then you get the result as parameter, you can just set it to the filter = “the Result” (if you use Final XML Filter as the Output) or you parse the GUID if you use the comma or | delimited concept, or if you use EntityCollection then you need to parse it back.

5. See the result

Basically, you just need to get this result:

Either you just easily using String as output or other method it is up to u.

But the point here is we can use Custom Action for solving complex filtering and remember that we can use impersonation also to get the data you want if it is related to the other entities as well, imagine if we also need to have multiple entities involved then it might be easier if we use Custom Action as we just replace the DLL if there is any other changes using Plugin Registration Tool.

Result

*After clicking the ‘Delete’ button

Note: This method is overwriting the CRM functions and it works for CRM 2013, for CRM 2015/2016, this function [Mscrm.GridCommandActions.deleteRecords] might have been changed, so need to find out the current function name based on your CRM Version. And again, it means it is unsupported

Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Hi all,
Long time I did not blog any post due to workload.
And this is my first post in this month (I know it is end of the month already)
This post basically a quick one because I have the requirement.

So, the users just want to have guidance when they entering inputs in the system.

This is a supported way and very useful as well. But it will make the form slower because will load the web resource and how many web resource you should create and insert. Well, you can create 1 common .html then pass the label text as the parameter

3. Using other way

So, unfortunately if those 2 solutions still not the best choice, we could go to another way using the help of CSS and Javascript.

But, those will apply to the subgrid regardless the Condition, probably for the second method, you could apply some Enable/Display Rule on the subgrid ribbon.

But, if you want to do it only for specific entity and based on Parent Form condition (can be based on parent fields or even other entity values), then there is another way to do this that I will put the code in this post.

How to call:

openNewRecordFormFromSubgridButton("mysubgrid_name", true);

Result

*Previous
As we can see it opens lookup to look to the Existing record, it is 1:N, the record is almost possible already linked to another record, so it will make the users confused when they open this lookup.
*After

*And I never set any Required field to the parent lookup value, because this field is NOT always mandatory field, so it is conditional only.

Note: Use this method if you want to control the subgrid plus button based on some conditions and using the Form on Load script (easier), and it only works for the subgrid inside the form that load the function, other subgrid from another parent entity that does not have this function will not be affected, that is the advantage of using this method, to only affect subgrid of the child based on some parent entities and the function will be placed in the Parent Entity Form OnLoad and this is unsupported way.

“This is for dynamically control the subgrid behaviour through parent form onload functions based on some conditions logic, especially for 1:N relationship that usually already linked to another parent record, so that it is supposed to insist to open new Form, instead of asking the user to choose another existing record.

Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Just want to share how we can modify the View Filter Criteria/Condition dynamically.

Introduction

Recently I have requirement that I need to create a View in CRM that there is no way to construct it from Advanced Find and make it dynamic.

For example,
I need to have query that:
1. The Date parameter is must be changed accodingly based on the today date and
2. Another parameter must get the value from a Configuration Entity
Ok, for number 1, we can force the users to always go to the View and change the date accordingly, but how about number 2?

So, my use case:

Show me the list of Customers that due date is in the next 21 days?
Meanwhile, 21 here is must be dynamically obtained from another Configuration entity.So, this is nearly impossible, because even we use Advanced Find there is no way to use variable as parameter in the filter criteria that we need to query from another entity that is NOT related at all!As we know that Advanced Find Query, only has limited operator and also it cannot Query from another entity, only limited to the related entities.

Use Case

So, to go to the code, I need to tell the scenario first, and to make it simpler, I just use this use Case:
I want to get all Active Customers that birthday is this Month.

This month is May for example.
So, I have a custom field = Birthday Month

Which I have auto-populated this field before with the Date Birth component (in another plugin).
So, now I need to always update the View to always Query to the:

Status = Active and Birthday Month = 5

And for the Next Month (June) should be:
Status = Active and Birthday Month = 6

Which last Month for April
Status = Active and Birthday Month = 4

Those number 5, 6, and 4 are supposed to be generated dynamically.

And I can’t use the This-Month operator because I dont have May 2016 Data, since I save the DOB, not updating every customer BOD every year plus 1 year.

You can also add another requirement, such as must be a Member Customer with Annual Income more than X, which X is you taken from Configuration entity.What you need is just a new fetch XML or Query Expression that you can just convert use this request!

But, for this use case, my point is jut to point out to you how to modify the Query just as per you wish (sorry as per Users’ whish )

The Current View

So, for the post here, I just need to replace the Query from the Existing View (in your case, you might need to create a new View)

Then I got the savedqueryid from this view

The Code

public void Execute(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
{
#region must have
IPluginExecutionContext context = (IPluginExecutionContext)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IPluginExecutionContext));
IOrganizationServiceFactory serviceFactory = (IOrganizationServiceFactory)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(IOrganizationServiceFactory));
// Create service with context of current user
IOrganizationService service = serviceFactory.CreateOrganizationService(context.UserId);
//create tracing service
ITracingService tracingService = (ITracingService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(ITracingService));
#endregion
if (context.OutputParameters.Contains("BusinessEntity"))
{
var retrievedResult = (Entity)context.OutputParameters["BusinessEntity"];
Entity entity = retrievedResult;
string fetch = string.Empty;
//the below GUID, you can do advance query to make this as non-hardcoded one, you can find by name as well, for example
//just for my use case here, I post here as final GUID of the 'Active Customer' view GUID
//in ACTUAL case, do not use harcoded one because it will change in different environment unless for Out of The Box Entities View
if ((Guid)entity["savedqueryid"] == new Guid("00000000-0000-0000-00AA-000010001004"))
{
QueryExpression qenew = new QueryExpression("contact");
ConditionExpression activeCon = new ConditionExpression()
{
AttributeName = "statecode",
Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal,
Values = { 1 }
};
int currentMonth = DateTime.Now.Month; //this is the variable that dynamically you need to insert in
ConditionExpression birthdayCon = new ConditionExpression()
{
AttributeName = "ags_birthdaymonth",
Operator = ConditionOperator.Equal,
Values = { currentMonth }
};
qenew.Criteria.Conditions.Add(activeCon);
qenew.Criteria.Conditions.Add(birthdayCon);
//for easy fetch XML I use the Query Expression then convert to FetchXML
//but you can always use the directly generated fetchXML and also can get from Advanced Find as well
QueryExpressionToFetchXmlRequest req = new QueryExpressionToFetchXmlRequest();
req.Query = qenew;
QueryExpressionToFetchXmlResponse resp = (QueryExpressionToFetchXmlResponse)service.Execute(req);
//work with newly formed fetch string
string myfetch = resp.FetchXml;
//change the existing
entity["name"] = "Active Customer Birthday this Month";
entity["fetchxml"] = myfetch;
}
}
}

Code Explanation

*For the GUID of savedqueryid section, I got the ID and I implement in my code

*In your case, you need to do query, do not hardcode, please see my comment in the code as well.
For the Query Expresison, this is the place for you to change the logic as per your current requirement

Then for the Fetch XML

As the title mentioned, Then you need to register as POST event for RETRIEVE message, entity = savedquery.
Refresh the Advanced Find or View to see the result.

Result

As we can see that now, the Active Customer View (The View that we just now changed the fetchXML dynamically), now has this Query

You can also try to tweak your code, by just add additional conditional over the existing view by retrieving the fetch xml

string baseFetchXML = enSavedQuery["fetchxml"].ToString();

Then use this request to convert to Query Expression easily

FetchXmlToQueryExpressionResponse

Example of what I Did:

Remember, you can also add another Parameters.

So use this method for Querying:
1. Query that different from the static query from the View
2. Query that requires dynamic Date/Datetime variables
3. Query that needs condition obtained from another non-related entity
4. Query with variable from another Entity, let’s say Configuration Entity
5. Another Impossible Query using standard static Advanced Find
6. Also can do query that involving Current User, Security Role, or Team Query
7. Query requires Operator like “Does-Not-Equal Today” then you can utilize the “ON-OR-BEFORE” or “ON-ON-AFTER”
8. Query for “NOT IN”, then this one you can utilize the “DOES NOT EQUAL” function

You want to filter the Contact lookup in, if you modify the subgrid ribbon, in every contact subgrid, the filter will be applied and you might need extra code of criteria to actually limit the execution.

Good thing about that if your entity only used for single entity and you don’t need to specify is that only for subgrid or associated view, then modifying the ribbon is a better solution. however, if you want to filter only subgrid in specific entity or form, you can actually using another way.

So, in this post, basically I try to combine the ways to become one solution, to filter the N to N lookup that only applicable once the user load the form using single javascript. This is unsupported customization, but, remember, modifying the N to N view also needs unsupported customization, so yeah, to reach the requirement we have to go further for unsupported customization eventhough strongly I also not recommend.

Remember, to get the GUID of the list record to show, you can always using CRM Javascript or in CRM 2013 and above you can use smarter way that is to combine with Custom Action, since Custom Action can be called through Javascript.